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> Sony's PlayStation division to lay off 900 employees, roughly 8% of its workforce after missing its sales target for the PS5 console (More) | Disney's film production president Sean Bailey steps down after 15 years (More)

> Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan headline 2024 Outlaw Music Festival Tour; see full list of performers and concert dates (More)

> Spotify generates $4.5B for independent labels and artists (More) | Sean "Diddy" Combs accused by male music producer of sexual assault, now the fifth such lawsuit against Combs (More)


Science & Technology
> OpenAI asks judge to dismiss key part of New York Times copyright infringement lawsuit, accusing the news organization of "hacking" ChatGPT to produce copyrighted results (More) | See case background (More)

> Hearing live music triggers more brain activity in regions responsible for processing emotions than recordings of the same song, MRI study suggests (More)

> Researchers find striped marlin communicate with each other by changing the shade of their stripes during high-speed hunting; discovery sheds light on the evolution of predatory group behaviors in fish (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.2%, Dow -0.3%, Nasdaq +0.4%) as investors await this week's inflation data (More)

> Macy's to close 150 underperforming namesake stores, or about 30% of its total stores, by 2026; company expects to add new locations of higher-end department store Bloomingdale’s and beauty chain Bluemercury (More)

> Apple cancels decadelong project to develop autonomous electric vehicle, pivots to artificial intelligence (More) | Financial Times launches new investment arm for media and technology companies, makes first investment in future-of-work startup Charter (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

WOKE and SPORTS

“SPORTS HAS A PROBLEM…BEING WOKE AIN’T HELPING — PART II” 

By Phillip Stutts

(Part I in this series can be found here).

Also seen on Outkick.

If you listen carefully, you can feel the tremors collectively shaking around the sports world….

1. The University of Connecticut football team just opted out of their upcoming season (the first major university to do so).

2. A cascade of NFL players are now opting out of their upcoming season.

3. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred threatened to cancel the season when players tested positive for Covid-19.

4. PAC 12 football players have revolted against their conference leaders demanding to be compensated or they plan to sit out their season.

5. Stanford University just eliminated 11 scholarship sports due to budget deficit concerns.

6. The NBA’s return was a rating’s bust.

7. ESPN has a subscriber decline of 6% in 2020 — the largest decline ever posted -and has seen a ratings collapse, ranking 19th amongst the top TV networks falling behind the the Hallmark Channel, Home and Garden Television, and a network called “Investigation Discovery.”

Most of these tremors were caused by the Coronavirus disruption when our leaders in medicine, government, media, and sports convinced us last spring that if we just flattened the pandemic curve, they could see sports settle back to normality soon enough.

But that isn’t going to happen now.

The disease has become a political football, wokeness has erupted everywhere, and major sports is teetering on the brink of collapse.

Five months since the lockdowns went into effect, the 21/90 rule has been adopted by many Americans and its impact on sports is a ticking timebomb.

What’s the 21/90 rule?

To quote: “It takes 21 days to build or break a habit and 90 days to create a lifestyle. If you want to make most things a cornerstone to your life, understand that it won’t feel like second nature to you until about the 90-day mark.”

140+ days into the Covid-19 nightmare and many (not all) fans have lost their passion for sports (as evidenced by the ratings). They’ve found other routines, different ways to find “escapism”, and this impact will have devastating effects on the economic future of sports.

And when you add to the mix how the Woke Cancel Culture has invaded corporate America, media, universities, and athletes, these tremors are quickly turning into a massive economic earthquake.

What does this all mean?  READ MORE